It is well-known and conventional to use hook-and-loop fasteners, such as Velcro.RTM. fasteners, to secure footwear on the feet of the wearer. Many types of footwear presently on the market employ some form of permanently attached hook-and-loop fasteners, especially casual footwear such as sneakers, walking shoes, childrens' shoes and the like. It is also known in the art to replace conventional shoelace fasteners for footwear with hook-and-loop type fasteners or closures. Exemplary of such hook-and-loop shoe closure devices which are used to replace shoelaces are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,205,544; 4,907,352; and 5,203,053. The hook-and-loop fasteners in the devices disclosed in the aforesaid patents are secured to the shoelace eyelets by means of screws, rivets or spring wire clips. Such securing devices disadvantageously require special tools to fabricate or install.
Lace-type footwear has also been converted to zipper-type footwear by securing a zipper fastener to the lace eyelets of the footwear. U.S. Pat. Nos. 910,771 and 1,670,468 are exemplary of such shoe and boot fasteners. In those fastener devices, conventional laces are used to secure the zipper fastener in place.
One problem associated with athletic footwear fastened with laces, especially ice and roller skates, is the loosening of the fit after a relatively short time of use which requires retightening of the laces. Hook-and-loop fasteners facilitate tightening of the fit rapidly and with little or no interruption in the athletic endeavor. Such hook-and-loop fasteners also make it easier for children to tighten the fit of athletic footwear, such as ice and roller skates, and thereby prevent possible injury as a result of loosely fitting skates.
It would be desirable therefore to provide a simple, economical hook-and-loop system that could be used to readily convert lace fastened footwear to hook-and-loop fastened footwear without the use of any tools.